Celebration, Resilience and Creative Brilliance: Inside the Museum of the African Diaspora Afropolitan Ball
The crown jewel of this year’s Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week was the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Afropolitan Ball—a glittering, high-octane gala that raised more than $1 million for the institution’s programming. The black-tie fête once again drew a mix of power players from art, fashion, entertainment and philanthropy, all converging at the San Francisco Ferry Building to see and be seen while celebrating MoAD’s 20th anniversary.
Spotted in the cosmopolitan crowd were artists Mildred Howard, Zully Adler, Cheryl Derricotte, Mikael Owunna, Marta Thoma Hall, Ayana V. Jackson, Gustavo Nazareno, Ramekon O’Arwisters and Lava Thomas; curators Francesco Dama, Ashara Ekundayo and Yasmin Lambie-Simpson; and gallerist Jeremy Patricia Stone. Also in attendance were San Francisco Director of Cultural Affairs Ralph Remington, political powerbroker Willie L. Brown Jr., arts patron Irwin Federman, multihyphenate creator Joy Ofodu, philanthropist Mary Graham, director and screenwriter Maya Forbes and China Forbes, lead singer of Pink Martini. The latter are sisters, MoAD board members and daughters of board vice chair Peggy Woodford Forbes, founder and former CEO of Woodford Capital Management. (Supporting MoAD, it seems, runs in the family.)
Kicking off the evening’s festivities, event chair Eric McDonnell took the stage to spotlight MoAD’s achievements over two decades before Woodford Forbes honored the museum’s founding board, including Belva Davis, inaugural board president and the first African American woman television reporter on the West Coast. MoAD executive director and CEO Monetta White then unveiled the museum’s new mandate. “We step boldly into the future with a new mission, to place contemporary art and artists of the African Diaspora at the center of the global cultural conversation,” she said. “This is not just a statement, it is a charge. A charge to lift up the voices of artists from the African Diaspora and to make sure their contributions are not at the margins, but at the very center of culture.”
Once the speeches concluded, auction specialist Naomi Lewis rallied the glitterati to raise their paddles for experiences including a Donum Estate wine tasting and a private dinner with White and curator Key Jo Lee. A spellbinding performance by Alonzo King LINES Ballet followed—offering a preview of its upcoming collaboration with Grammy-winning artist Esperanza Spalding—before DJ Novena Carmel took over the balcony, spinning a genre-spanning set that kept guests dancing late into the night.
Eric McDonnell, Monetta White, Ralph Remington and Key Jo Lee
Naomi Lewis
Maya Forbes and China Forbes
Mikael Owunna
Ayana Jackson, Gustavo Nazareno, Lava Thomas and Yasmin Lambie-Simpson
Robin Washington and Carl Washington
Toye Moses and Alma Robinson Moses
Willie Brown and Monetta White
Luke Liss, Peggy Woodford Forbes and Shana Simmons
Brandin Vaughn and Gustavo Nazareno
Joy Ofodu
Chuck Collins, Paula Collins and Ralph Remington
Concepcion Federman and Irwin Federman
Key Jo Lee, Lava Thomas, Ashara Ekundayo and Richard Beavers
Naomi Lewis and Ramekon O’Arwisters
Charisse Howse and David Howse
